Vitamins and minerals >>>> Avitaminosis
Avitaminosis.
Avitaminosis, the complete absence of a particular vitamin or group of vitamins in the human body, is not very common in modern life. As a rule, this term is popular to characterize the state of the body with a lack of vitamins. But from a medical point of view, this condition is more correctly called hypovitaminosis, that is, an insufficient amount of some vitamin to maintain the desired health potential.
Avitaminosis itself is the cause of severe functional disorders of various organ systems or destruction of the organs themselves and manifests itself in the form of a clinic (symptoms) of various diseases, often difficult to cure or completely incurable. Avitaminosis is not seasonal in nature, but rather associated with the way of eating (the absence of certain food components) and the human environment (the absence and inability to deliver some food products).
The causes of vitamin deficiency may lie in disorders associated with the absorption of useful elements that enter the digestive tract with food, or with diseases of the digestive system that interfere with the normal processes of food digestion. In addition, the development of vitamin deficiency is possible due to disruptions in metabolic processes at the molecular level in the cell itself, due to congenital or acquired anomalies in the mechanisms of vitamin synthesis from provitamins. Another important reason for the development of vitamin deficiency can be the intake of certain medications in connection with the treatment of some disease or the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages that impede the absorption or synthesis of a particular vitamin.
Signs of vitamin deficiency are tied to a particular vitamin, or rather to its absence. The most famous avitaminosis in medical science is:
- Loss of vitamin A for the body will result in eye diseases: Hemerolopia (Night blindness - this disease is characterized by loss of twilight vision); xerophthalmia - dryness of the cornea; clouding of the cornea (extreme case - thorn). And also the lack of vitamin A will affect the condition of teeth, hair, nails, skin. It will lead to brittle nails and hair, hair loss, skin dermatoses.
- Lack of vitamin C , provoking a disease such as scurvy. It is characterized by bleeding gums, loosening and loss of teeth (in the future, loss of all teeth), fragility of the walls of blood vessels, anemia, hemorrhagic rash. In the complete absence of vitamin C, scurvy develops within one to three months.
- A complete restriction in vitamin B1 will lead to the disease Polyneuritis (Beri-Beri). The lack of vitamin B1 provokes changes in the composition of the blood, where pyruvic acid will accumulate, and its concentration in the nerve fibers will increase. This leads to damage to the nerve fibers and the cardiovascular system. Paresis of muscle tissue occurs. The carbohydrate and fat metabolic processes will be disrupted. A person loses much weight, reaching complete exhaustion. The development of this disease will cause disruptions in the biochemistry of the midbrain and a disorder in the functioning of the nervous system, disturbances in the heart rhythm, heart failure and, in a short period of time, death.
- The lack of vitamin B2 in the body will lead to inflammatory diseases of the mucous membranes, up to swelling, cracking of the lips.
- The lack of vitamin B12 will affect the hematopoietic tissues, gradually destroy the spinal cord and nervous system. Will lead to such diseases as various types of anemia and funicular myelosis, memory impairment, irreversible mental disorders.
- Lack of vitamin B7 will cause skin diseases, anemia, disorders of the nervous system and psyche.
- The disappearance of vitamin D from the body will lead to disturbances in the formation of bone tissue, deformation of the skeleton.
- Failure to receive vitamin PP (nicotinic acid) by the body will cause Pellagra disease. Pellagra is characterized by general weakness, impaired concentration, sleep disturbances, increased irritability, dementia, diarrhea, dermatitis, paralysis of the muscles of the limbs, neuritis, and cardiomyopathy. Death occurs after two to five years.
Successful treatment of vitamin deficiency depends on the stage at which the development of the disease is. It is possible to return the state of the body to its original form only at the very beginning of the development of avitaminosis, but there is a line beyond which the body cannot restore completely disturbed functions or the state of organs. Of course, a fatal outcome can be avoided, but to remain a seriously ill person for life. The main principle of the treatment of vitamin deficiency is considered to be urgent vitamin therapy, and more specifically, taking the appropriate vitamin in very large doses in the form of tablets or injections (if such a form of vitamin administration exists).
Despite the fact that modern science and medical knowledge make it possible to compose a sufficiently balanced diet for any income level, people manage to "earn" vitamin deficiency even in this case. And the reason for such disruptions in the body lies in the unreasonable hobby for mono-diets or "curative" starvation. Therefore, resorting to extremes in your hobbies for health procedures in nutrition, remember that the body has nowhere else to take elements for its structure, except from food, since it is nutrition that is the continuation of life, and not its absence.
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